"Athena has succeeded in improving the physical end
of chip design without competing directly with vendors like Cadence
Design Systems Inc., said Dan Ahn, managing director at Woodside
and an Athena Design director."

Electronic design automation company Athena Design Systems has emerged
from stealth and added James Hogan to its board.

Venture capital firms Woodside Fund, Draper Richards LP and Asset
Management Co. are backing the start-up, which is developing post-route
optimization tools for chip designers. Athena Design has raised
$4 million in equity and $2 million in debt financing.

The company's technology is designed to simplify physical design
implementation in complex chips - where wires and routing signals
are placed. Athena has succeeded in improving the physical end of
chip design without competing directly with vendors like Cadence
Design Systems Inc., said Dan Ahn, managing director at Woodside
and an Athena Design director.

"If you really understand EDA process at a low level and you
can do some intelligent modifications early on, you can speed up
the process by almost an order of magnitude," said Bennett
Dubin of Athena Design's technology advancements. Dubin is a board
director at Athena Design and partner at Asset Management.

Hogan, an independent on the board, previously served as general
partner at Telos Venture Partners and senior vice president of business
development at Artisan Components Inc., now part of ARM Holdings
PLC.

Athena is the brainchild of Dimitris Fotakis, founder of Ammocore
Technology Inc., a venture-backed company which developed design
software for chips before it shut down. Fotakis left Ammocore in
2003 to found Athena Design. Before Ammocore, Fotakis worked at
National Semiconductor Corp. and at Cadence, where he developed
its HyperExtract product.

John Murphy, Athena Design's chief executive, spent more than a
decade at Cadence, where he focused on marketing, applications engineering
and general management, focusing on IC implementation and verification.
He most recently served as chief of staff to Ray Bingham, executive
chairman of Cadence. He joined Athena Design in January 2005.

Murphy said the company is in evaluation trials with NEC Corp.
and other semiconductor companies, including one that builds home
entertainment devices and another focusing on wireless mobile devices.
Murphy declined to name other potential customers.